Defending champions the Northern Bulls and seven-time winners the Canterbury Crusaders clash today in an extraordinary Super 14 semi-final. It will be the first major rugby union fixture staged in the black township of Soweto, about a 30 minute drive southwest from the South African financial nerve center.
The move from the intimidating Loftus Versfeld home of the Bulls in an upmarket Pretoria suburb to Orlando Stadium was necessitated by preparations at the rugby ground for this year’s FIFA World Cup. How times have changed with Orlando Stadium once the dilapidated home of South African football, a predominantly black sport ignored by successive apartheid governments.
The Bulls were once called Northern Transvaal, an exclusively white team including soldiers and policeman who fought to uphold racist government policies and whose supporters were all white.
South Africa has moved on dramatically from those dark days and when the Bulls had to choose a temporary home from two football stadiums and one cricket ground, they opted for the rebuilt 40,000-seat Orlando Stadium.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke sees no problems with the move to Soweto as the Bulls seek a second success over the Crusaders in three weeks having snatched a 40-35 mini-league victory at Loftus.
“The crowd will come, the referee will blow his whistle, and it should all be the same. It will be a great privilege to play in Soweto and the significance of the occasion is not lost on us,” he told reporters.
Sowetans in the crowd used to short, slightly built local footballers are in for a rude shock as they stare up at the Bulls 2m “man mountains” like locks Victor Matfield and Danie Rossouw and No. 8 Pierre Spies.
A giant conspicuous by his absence will be lock-cum-enforcer Bakkies Botha, suspended for four matches this week after once again being caught charging illegally into a ruck.
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